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I’m Bob Larson. Leaders from Washington state’s leading livestock producers met up in Ellensburg recently to talk about the challenges ranchers face caused by the reintroduction of wolves over a decade ago …

DAVIS … “This was the first of its kind, we called it the ‘Cowboy Summit’, and it was the bringing together of the Cattle Producers of Washington, their leadership, the Washington Cattlemen’s Association and the Washington Farm Bureau. So, it was a room full of ranchers, many of which were from the northeast corner of our state, so those that had been most affected by the return of wolves into Washington.”

The Washington Farm Bureau’s Tom Davis says it was a great opportunity for a face-to-face with stakeholders in search of answers to the biggest problems they face in their world that now includes predatory wolves …

DAVIS … “And, so it was an opportunity to have a conversation, not only about wolf impacts and what that means to ranchers, but just really specific details of what’s working when it comes to managing wolves and what’s not working, and sadly what we heard from most of them was a lot more on the it’s not working side.”

Davis says what ranchers have discovered over the past decade, is that it’s about more than just dead or injured animals, but also how the presence of wolves affects the cattle with things like weight loss, pregnancy rates, and illness.

Listen tomorrow for more on the Cowboy Summit and some of the major issues they identified during the meeting.